“New Jersey commuters will be treated equally at all Hudson River crossings — the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and the George Washington Bridge — and New Jersey will also have a seat at the table as the plan moves forward,” Murphy plans to tell reporters Wednesday afternoon. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo

New York, New Jersey governors cut deal on congestion pricing

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has reached a conceptual agreement with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that will ensure the state’s three Hudson River crossings will be treated the same way under a new plan to toll drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

Transit advocates interpret the deal to mean all three crossings will be exempted from so-called congestion pricing, which will take effect in Manhattan, south of 60th St., sometime after December 2020.

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The agreement, which Murphy plans to announce Wednesday afternoon following a meeting with local officials in commuter-rich Bergen County, was struck last week through several discussions between the governors and their staffs.

Murphy plans to tell reporters Wednesday afternoon that he has an understanding with Cuomo that New Jersey commuters will be treated equally at all Hudson River crossings — the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and the George Washington Bridge, according to the two people who were involved in the negotiations.

The deal does not explicitly guarantee drivers using the bridge and tunnels will be credited for the tolls they pay to use those spans. But that appears to be a likely outcome of the agreement, in which Cuomo also pledged to ensure New Jersey officials have “a seat at the table” as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority develops details of its congestion pricing scheme.

The legislation authorizing congestion pricing did not explicitly mention any exemptions for the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, but both tubes feed directly into the congestion pricing zone, and many assumed they’d get carve-outs. Cuomo’s earlier state budget proposal would have done so.

The George Washington Bridge, however, empties into Manhattan far north of the congestion pricing zone, and there’s been uncertainty about whether commuters using the bridge would be credited. The agreement to treat all three crossings equitably suggests all three will get carve-outs.

MTA board member Veronica Vanterpool said the deal appears to undermine the very idea behind congestion pricing — that making it harder to drive into the city will prompt more people to use mass transit.

“If I had to guess, I’d say a number of them did have transit options,” she said, referring to commuters who take the George Washington Bridge. “Those are the motorists we want to impact — and not just in New Jersey as a punitive measure, but regionwide.”

Murphy shares control of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with Cuomo, and he appears to have used that as leverage in the discussions. The two Democrats came to the agreement on Thursday, shortly before the New York governor spoke at length about congestion pricing during a press conference in Manhattan.

Under terms of the arrangement, Murphy has agreed to allow the Port Authority to implement cashless, electronic tolling at all of its crossings — the main issue Cuomo wanted to discuss last week, according to the two people familiar with the conversations.

Cuomo said last week the technology must be in place in order for drivers to be credited against the cost of the new Manhattan tolls, which some say could reach $14 or more.

Murphy plans to tell reporters and local officials Wednesday that moving forward with cashless tolling at the Port Authority-controlled crossings will not only make delivering the credits to New Jersey drivers possible, but it will also relieve congestion at the toll plazas, especially on the George Washington Bridge, according to the sources.

There were discussions in recent days about issuing a joint statement from the governors outlining the deal, but the idea was scrapped, the sources said.

Cuomo’s office would not directly acknowledge the agreement on Wednesday.

"The MTA will determine congestion pricing and will be doing a traffic study over the next two years. They will consider all crossings as well as New Jersey crossings,” Cuomo spokesperson Patrick Muncie said in a statement, referring to the transportation authority Cuomo effectively controls. “No conclusions will be reached by the MTA until all studies are completed.

“The Port Authority is long overdue in its transition to electronic tolling which saves commuters and the agency time and money," Muncie stated.

A spokesperson for the MTA had no comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Port Authority.

Murphy also thinks New Jersey should get some of the proceeds from congestion pricing, even though the intent of the new tolls is to raise enough money to underwrite $15 billion in debt for the MTA's Capital Program. Such an outcome is not likely and was not part of the deal.

While the New York Legislature passed a congestion pricing bill this year, it punted all decisions about toll exemptions to a panel within the MTA. Many anticipated the MTA would grant exemptions for drivers using the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, but the issue of the George Washington Bridge was more controversial because, unlike the tunnels, it does not directly spill into Manhattan’s central business district.

Politicians from both New Jersey and from New York regions west of the Hudson River have been lobbying hard for a George Washington Bridge exemption. But the MTA panel doesn’t have to release any details about congestion pricing tolls, and who will be exempt from those tolls, until after the 2020 elections.

As a result, transit advocates regard the next 20 months as a rearguard action to fend off carve-outs. They say every additional carve-out will undermine the dual goals of congestion pricing — raising revenues for the MTA and reducing traffic in Manhattan.

It’s not clear, however, whether the advocates have that many tools at their disposal. It wasn’t easy for Cuomo to push congestion pricing through the New York State Legislature, and many presumed deals were made.

Earlier this month, New York Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx) boasted that he had exchanged his congestion pricing support for a promise to give Bronx residents free access to the MTA’s Henry Hudson Bridge. In effect, the state traded one revenue source (the bridge) for another (congestion pricing).

Queens politicians secured a similar deal for the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, which connects Broad Channel to Rockaway.

The news that another additional giveaway appears to be in the offing came as bad news to transit advocates.

“If you give some people special treatment, you either have to raise direct tolling costs for others, raise transit fares for others, and/or provide less money for our transit system,” Pearlstein said. “It is a zero sum game.“